The end of each expansion added a large character power level increase which was necessary at the time, but not necessary today. Item levels will remain the same, but item stats have been squished. Some players adapted to it instantly, while some took an hour to get used to it.

There aren't going to be any more guild levels or perks in WoD. There is no way to expand every system with every expansion. Going forward the team will try to compartmentalize the systems added in an expansion to the expansion they were added in. A good example of this is the farm added in MoP. Once WoD is released, you shouldn't have much of a reason to go back to MoP and work on your farm.

The guild system wasn't designed to make people want to be in a guild, as people generally already want to be in a guild, and almost everyone is in a guild. It was added to allow the game to recognize the accomplishments of guilds.

Flex mode was one of the improvements made to encourage players to get back to playing with friends, and WoD will add some more incentives.

The game has a Raid Browser that no one uses, so in WoD it will be expanded to support killing world bosses, doing achievements, finishing Shadowmourne, or any other activity. This will support cross realm groups and encourage people to do PuGs rather than completely random matchmaking.

The new Flex loot model will work similar to how Master Loot does today, but the number of drops will scale based on the number of people eligible for loot in the group. The personal loot system won't be removed, you will just have to opt in to it.

The number of drops will scale well with the number of players, as each additional player gives you a higher chance to get another drop, up to where it is guaranteed. This ensures that are no odd breakpoints that will restrict raid sizes.

The team hasn't decided how new character models will be released yet. It could have all of the completed race at launch, or they could be added every patch.

Most of Thrall's family is alive in Draenor. The Saurfangs may or may not appear, it hasn't been decided yet. The team can't use every single character that was in Draenor when telling the story, so they will focus on the core characters.

The new panels for Heirlooms and Toys will work similar to how pets and mounts do today, with some restrictions like Horde vs Alliance for a few things.

The old version of Outland will remain unchanged. The current timeline is already somewhat of a mess, so the team may just move access to the current Outland to the Caverns of Time.

The talent system will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future. Some talents still need tweaks, but the overall system is working well.

Scenarios worked out well and they will be present in 6.0, but solid plans as to what they will be are not made yet. Heroic scenarios also worked out well.

The team talked about just having Valor and Conquest, as Justice wasn't useful. They also haven't decided if they will keep the Valor Upgrade system like we have today.

When Garrosh goes back, he spins off his own timeline. He is going to try and come back to our world, but his actions won't change our history.

The odds of World PvP happening right by the edge of someone's garrison should be fairly low, so phasing shouldn't be a big issue. The large World PvP zone will likely be where most people interested in World PvP end up.

You can technically buy as many level 90s as you want if you buy another copy of the game, get the level 90, and then transfer the character to your main account each time. The team has talked about putting a level 90 purchase option in the store, but it hasn't been decided yet.

You can invite other players to a party and invite them to your garrison, similar to how Ready Checks are done now. There will be some reasons to go and see other player's garrisons, mostly because it is fun to show off.

The 5.1 storyline combined with the Timeless Isle exploration is close to what we can expect for max level content.

The Item Squish will go live with 6.0.

Renaming the difficulties was done because it was odd to call the lowest difficulty something other than normal once multiple difficulties could scale with player number. Normal in 6.0 will be roughly as difficult as Flex is today.

It would be nice to give Mythic difficulty unique art for armor sets, but time amount of time required to make armor sets is too great to justify doing so.

The garrison will be involved with professions somehow, but plans aren't fully fleshed out yet.

The recipe UI part of the professions could use some work, so it is next on the list after the current tasks.

Catch up like the cooking and archaeology things that were added in MoP would be nice to have for all the professions.

The garrison has a limited number of spots for buildings, and each profession will require a building if you want that type of follower.

There will be a legendary questline again in WoD. The questline will be a little bit more custom to your class to help with the lack of class quests. Class quests are very resource intensive, so at most we might see one or two in WoD. (Maybe Shaman)

The development on and release date of games in the other Blizzard franchises hasn't had any impact on the delivery speed of WoW content.

Another MoP patch would delay WoD, so Patch 5.5 isn't going to happen. The entire team is working on WoD right now, so any more MoP content would slow down development.

There aren't any plans for another WoW Annual Pass. It was a good idea at the time because getting Diablo 3 free made it a good deal, but it isn't a good for the the D3 expansion.

The Enchanted Fey Dragon will be a store mount. It will be sold alone or in a combo pack with another pet for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Monthly patches would be great, but it would be really hard. MoP made some progress towards doing this.

Level 100 felt better than Level 95 for a cap. Previously players also needed a new ability at every level, which limited the number of levels that could be added. Now with spell upgrades players can have 10 levels.

Leveling in WoD will be a fun and fast paced romp through the zones. The team is backing off the idea that leveling should be a long grind.

There aren't any plans for guild garrisons right now, but that can be revisited after the initial system is delivered and polished.

The Dark Iron dwarves will have a small story in the expansion.

We will find out what the Arakkoa were like when they had wings.

Ogres that we have seen so far aren't organized or as interesting as the ones we will see in the Ogre empire that is in decline in WoD.

There are no plans to improve the achievement UI for WoD release, but adding search and compare in the future is on the list.

That's exactly what they are doing. It's about time! I really like what oQueue brought to the game, but the put so much extra 'bloatware' into the addon, that it became really annoying to use. He should have put an option in, to disable portions if you didn't want to see/use them. I am sure the Bliz version will have some issues, but it will definitely not be such a resourrce/bandwidth hog as oQueue.

i agree, i didnt like the addon for the same reasons, as well as i didn't like how it took over my friends list. plus the addon creator(s) and the community they tried to foster didn't sit too well with me for some reason.

but the idea of the addon is good, so glad that blizzard are going to be incorporating a similar tool into the game.

"After explaining to Doomhammer the deception of Gul'dan, Durotan and Draka were sent away to safety with one of Doomhammer’s guards, but the guard betrayed them to the assassins of the Stormreaver clan. Draka was killed in the encounter." So it cannot be Draka. Also when i read book i read that she was killed. If it would be her then it wouldn't agree with lore.

actually if you think for a second about the timeline you would realize there is a potential for Draka to be the female orc in this, not saying that it is her just because it could be a random but; "Thrall (birthname Go'el), son of Durotan (born 2 years ADP)" means that she needs to be alive to give birth to him after the dark portal is opened, in warlords the dark portal has not been opened yet to my knowledge and so Draka must still be alive.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Faithshield

"The old version of Outland will remain unchanged. The current timeline is already somewhat of a mess, so the team may just move access to the current Outland to the Caverns of Time."

Keeping an eye on this one. The 60-70 content is going to feel even more labourous though if this happens. Plus, confusing to new players?

Seems to be more logical to send the new one to the caverns and the one from BC to stay accessible by the Dark Portal to me, just because of the nature of these things I assume someone would find a progression taking them to the caverns to be potentially more confusing since the later Outland quests send you back to the CoT as if you would be heading there for the first time.

wait, so their team is larger than ever, yet they can't do a good job of including characters in draenor?

Sometimes its best to focus on only the characters core to the story, and not try to stuff every single lore character that lived during that time. Remember the movies "X-Men Last Stand," "Mortal Kombat: Annhilation," and "Batman & Robin?" So many characters squeezed into those movies just for the sake of cameos and fanboy waving, and while it wasn't the only problem with those movies, it was completely unnecessary and contributed to their crappiness.

I'm disappointed there's characters I'd love to see in WoD that might have been cut, but overall I'm fine with it if it means a tighter story.

The new Flex loot model will work similar to how Master Loot does today, but the number of drops will scale based on the number of people eligible for loot in the group. The personal loot system won't be removed, you will just have to opt in to it.

I really hope personal loot stays for flex (aka normal). I pug with oqueue and players I have never seen before; this is the best loot system to avoid any drama.

"The old version of Outland will remain unchanged. The current timeline is already somewhat of a mess, so the team may just move access to the current Outland to the Caverns of Time."

Keeping an eye on this one. The 60-70 content is going to feel even more labourous though if this happens. Plus, confusing to new players?

So you reach the past Outland through the present Dark Portal, but the present Outland through the Caverns of Time. But it doesn't involve time-travel? This is starting to make the MoP launch look brilliant.

Garrisons sound very similar to other systems that other games have, such as the DOFF system with Star Trek Online. While this won't appeal to everyone (honestly, what does appeal to everyone in a game with 7 million subscribers?), those that like that sort of thing will have a new addiction to feed.

I really hope personal loot stays for flex (aka normal). I pug with oqueue and players I have never seen before; this is the best loot system to avoid any drama.

Well, they said that we can opt into personal loot. So, maybe the raid leader toggles personal loot on or the individual toggles it on and doesn't get to roll on group loot. I too am concerned, as I flex with Oqueue. Maybe the revamp of the raid browser will get rid of our need for Oqueue (fingers crossed) in the first place.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by medievalman1

Garrisons sound very similar to other systems that other games have, such as the DOFF system with Star Trek Online. While this won't appeal to everyone (honestly, what does appeal to everyone in a game with 7 million subscribers?), those that like that sort of thing will have a new addiction to feed.

The followers going on quests sounds like SWTOR. And yes, the garrison will be my addiction with my millions of alts having different combinations of buildings and followers!

actually if you think for a second about the timeline you would realize there is a potential for Draka to be the female orc in this, not saying that it is her just because it could be a random but; "Thrall (birthname Go'el), son of Durotan (born 2 years ADP)" means that she needs to be alive to give birth to him after the dark portal is opened, in warlords the dark portal has not been opened yet to my knowledge and so Draka must still be alive.

- - - Updated - - -

Seems to be more logical to send the new one to the caverns and the one from BC to stay accessible by the Dark Portal to me, just because of the nature of these things I assume someone would find a progression taking them to the caverns to be potentially more confusing since the later Outland quests send you back to the CoT as if you would be heading there for the first time.

Go and read book again if you didn't read it. They were already at Azeroth. Thrall was newborn... And they were Assasinated by a guard. Already in AZEROTH. And then a human found little Thrall. If you don't know lore than don't even talk about it.

You can technically buy as many level 90s as you want if you buy another copy of the game, get the level 90, and then transfer the character to your main account each time. The team has talked about putting a level 90 purchase option in the store, but it hasn't been decided yet.

Well they did say they had plans for Asian players who do not pay a sub or buy expacs. But ya the way it's worded they plan to have it active for all regions, which ya is bad.

They keep saying how much they want people to enjoy older zones through leveling, but just flat out selling characters is like saying "hey we know our non new content sucks so for a base fee you can skip it all, it's not required or anything but if you want to get to the action faster or even have fun where other people are with a new account/character it is optional whether you want to do it or not". If that is the case then, then they need to stop telling people how good their old content is when they know everyone will just feel inclined to pay to skip it.